


Nophica's Arbor

by GrinGrimly



Series: FF!AU [1]
Category: South Park
Genre: Final Fantasy XIV AU, First Meetings, Hyur!Craig, M/M, Miqo’te!Tweek, Other characters not in it enough for mentions, more likely than you think, writing for a game I barely know anything about?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-07
Updated: 2017-12-07
Packaged: 2019-02-11 04:39:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,622
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12927648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GrinGrimly/pseuds/GrinGrimly
Summary: Craig just wants the day to be done, and then he doesn’t.He’s still going to strangle Clyde when he sees him again.





	Nophica's Arbor

**Author's Note:**

> For Dunya, who came up with the AU and then inspired me to write something for it! Got a little out of hand, but I’m getting the feel for the space and hope I can write something even better in the future!

Gridania was a little too soft for Craig’s taste. Nothing like Ul’dah, with its deserts, baking heat and loud, ever crowded streets. Gridania was cooler, almost unpleasantly so, with its large swathes of shade from the looming canopies of its ancient trees. It had never been more than a pit stop for wherever Clyde would drag him to next, for whatever quest he demanded they do. Yet now it seemed that he would be here for an unforeseeable amount of time. They had arrived the night before and were stuck using the inn while there. Early morning at least had the Carline Canopy mostly empty, people either out prepping for the day or still sleeping off the drink from the night before.

Though he had agreed to travel with Clyde, Craig was seriously tempted to just hop a transport back to Ul’dah.

  
“Dude, seriously, it was an accident!” Clyde had protested hotly, the partial remains of their free company’s building still smoldering behind him. “At least this way, we can do the remodeling we’ve always talked about!”

“With your gil, of course.” Token had shot back, working his way through the supplies they managed to save from the destruction. “Still... it’ll be weeks until we can move back in.”

Token hadn’t been as angry as some of the others, his own personal effects staying in his own home in one of the adjacent wards. Others hadn’t been quite as lucky, a couple of angry murmurs coming from the few people milling about to check how damaged the building was.

“W-W-Well, we can always use the time to ad-v-v-ven... adv-ve-ve... travel around a bit.” Jimmy offered, sitting on one of the stumps nearby. “Maybe get our name out there a l-l-little more.”

“Running some quests would probably soften the blow on our funds as well.”

Craig had been leaning against the far fence as his companions had talked, never having really kept much in the building himself. Sucks that he lost his bed though, and the thought of being relatively homeless until the building was fixed was annoying. Inns were noisy on the best of days, and he preferred more peace and privacy than communal bedding.

“-ibs on Craig!” A strong hand slapping his back had Craig bending forward, taking the blow easily enough and turning to glare at Clyde’s stupid grin.

“What?” Craig asked, focusing back onto the conversation.

“You and me, man!” Clyde explained, “we’re gonna head on out to do some good old fashioned adventuring! It’ll be great!”

Craig narrowed his eyes and flipped Clyde off. Like hell he was getting roped into this.

“Really!” Clyde added. “Just like old times! It’ll be fun, you’ll see!”

“I don’t care.”

“Come on, man! Please? Seriously, please?” Clyde begged, and Craig wondered if he would be kicked from the company if he shoved Clyde over the fence and into the stream below. Yet despite the annoyance, he could feel his resolution wavering. “It’ll be great, you’ll see! I promise, seriously! Come on, Craig!”

  
It hadn’t been a fun adventure, despite Clyde’s insistence as they had wandered into the Black Shroud. ‘Lot’s of easy quests here,’ he had said. ‘Quick gil for sure,’ he had assured. Quick gil Craig’s ass. Clyde had been the one to read over the board as Craig ate his breakfast in peace, lazily scanning the crowd and flipping off a newbie adventurer that had been staring at him for too long. He hated taverns.

The Lalafell at the counter seemed to be in charge, chatting to Clyde as he handed over a couple of papers he had snatched from the board. Apparently there were a few fetch quests from the guilds around Gridania, and Clyde had grabbed the ones with the biggest payout.

“You just need to collect some vines and shit, it’s all on the paper, dude,” Clyde had said, waving the sheet in front of Craig until he had taken it from him. “Won’t even take you half a day! Like I said, easy money.”

He was going to choke Clyde when he saw him again.

The items asked for were not just ‘some vines’, they wanted Morbol vines. Morbol vines and Fungaur bulbs. Both came from creatures that loved nothing more than to give you nasty rashes and suffocate you with their toxins. It had taken him damn near a whole day just to collect the ridiculous amount asked for, and by the end of it had almost depleted his entire stock of potions and remedies. It wasn’t worth it, and he was going to choke Clyde with his own damn cape when he next spied him, gods as his witness. Clan mate or not, this shit was not worth the reward offered. He wasn’t the one that caused the destruction, but hell if he didn’t feel like he was somehow saddled with the debt.

The city smelled too sweet as he trudged through once more, cloak wrapped around him as if it would stave off the dark mood that trailed a half step behind. Gridania to him felt more like it belonged as a painting on someone’s stuffy parlor wall than to actually be a true place to live. The people were quieter than those he walked by in Ul’dah, and he supposed that was the only thing he was enjoying about the city. It was quiet; no loud fights tumbling into the streets, no noisy guards accusing you of illegal acts just to try to blackmail you.

You could almost forget the monstrosities in the woods outside the gates. Almost.

The smell of Stroper bile still clung faintly to his clothes, and made his pace all the quicker towards the Greatloam Growery. Get in, collect the Gil, and go.

“We didn’t ask for these.”

And the icing on the fucking cake.

“What do you mean you didn’t-“ Craig cut himself off, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Look. The paper fucking says to drop them off at the guild.”

The Elezen behind the counter read over the paper in confusion, his own work book pressed open with his other hand. “It does say to deliver them here, but we have no record of needing these. Honestly they aren’t really common items for us to use around here. Uh, one moment-“ he paused, glancing around the large room. “Ah- Theorzen, a word? Do you know anything about this?”

A rather dirty looking Roegadyn glanced up from where he had been organizing produce. As the large man wandered over, Craig couldn’t help but wonder if every guild in Gridania had a receptionist as ‘organized’ as this one, or if he was just lucky.

“Morbol vines? What would- Oh.” The man looked back up to the receptionist. “This ain’t for us, ‘s for th’ little jitterbug.”

Jitterbug?

“Mr. Tweak?” The Elezen asked.

Tweak? The fuck?

“Aye. S’pose t’have been here a few hours ago t’ look at some rotting roots for us, but I’ve not seen him ‘round. Must’ve gotten a wee tied up with a customer.”

Craig could feel a headache forming right behind his ears from clenching his teeth in frustration. “So. Where is he?”

“If you like,” the Elezen offered, “you can leave the items here and we can send the payment to the adventurer’s guild as soon as he comes around?”

As tempting as that was, Craig wasn’t about to let the possibility of getting jipped happen. He had been put through too much shit today to let that possibility happen. “I’ll just go to him. Where is he?”

“Should be at his place, yeah?” Theorzen asked, before turning to Craig. “His shop’s up past the falls to the left, can’t miss it. Wooden structure, bunch’a windows. If ya catch him, remind him about th’ roots lad.”

Craig felt his lip curl up slightly in annoyance, but didn’t deny Theorzen’s request. If he didn’t punch this idiot, he might actually remember to pass on the reminder. He turned and left back into the darkening night, rubbing his nose again as he felt his eyelids grow momentarily heavy. Shit, he was tired.

Gridania seemed to become even more dreamlike at night. Lanterns with soft light illuminating the dark pathways, fireflies lazily making their way from light to light. Between the gaps of canopies above, the clear sky glittered as stars watched from their perches. It wasn’t as nice a view as Ul’dah; there the sky seemed infinite once you climbed high enough. Nothing blocked the view, and it was hard to not spend each night from dusk til dawn just watching it all.

The walkway of stone and orange fabric draped above gave way to a rather small opening, a pond and a slightly unimpressive water feature burbling softly as water flowed. When he had first heard it called the falls, he had expected something slightly more... grande. But he supposed it had its charm; a couple milled about quietly near its edge, leaning close together and whispering as they watched the water reflect the lights.

Boring.

Craig continued on, eyeing the opening just past and to the left. Like Theorzen said, there was a small walkway cut in between the high rock ridges, curling down and around, beyond that out of sight.

He smelled it, before he actually got to the location. If he had thought Gridania had a flowery smell, this place put it to shame. Though he found it... different. Whereas Gridania had that sweet, almost choking smell of gentle spring mornings, the clearing he entered smelled sharper, yet cooler. Like mint, or something kin to it. The smell of spring melting into a cool autumn day, keen on the nose and sharpening the senses.

There were several small fields full of flora, many of which didn’t seem the typical produce and product of Gridania. Nestled between the fields was a walkway leading to and over a brook that seemed to disappear into the rocks on the far side of the clearing.

Craig paused at the signpost by the brook, squinting to read in the dim light.

Nophica’s Arbor?

The fuck was an arbor? He shrugged, crossing over and towards the building that stood out amongst the other buildings he had seen littering Gridania. Well, except for the Carline Canopy, he supposed. It was more glass than wood, though leaves and vines did a good job obscuring further sight inside. The door was open, the inviting threshold casting orange light onto the grass and porch outside. It seemed the flora continued inside, pots and troughs squished into every corner and fit to bursting with colorful blooms. A counter was the only real clear surface, only a few small planters on it.

Craig paused in the center of the room, glancing around and then up, where he saw railing for a second story and more plants hanging from ropes and draping their vines downwards and crisscrossed to each other. It was... interesting, he supposed.

“Sorry, Sorry, I’ll be rightwithyou!” A voice yelled out, Craig glancing to the counter and then back up, before giving himself whiplash with how fast he looked back at the counter. The first thing he thought was ‘bright’. Not in the way that had your eyes squinting and left you scowling in near blindness. No, it was like the kind of bright that had your eyes glued to it, a captivation that left you speechless and your lungs shriveling in breathless admiration. The man at the counter had messy golden hair, wide eyes glancing from Craig back to the plant he was currently doing... something with. Replanting it, from the dirt in the cup he was holding. Craig stood, and stared, and wondered if he could just turn around and leave. Ears, the same golden color and fuzzy, perked up from the ridiculous mess the man’s hair was, and Craig realized he was a Mi’qote. That would explain the peek of fang from when he spoke to Craig again, looking at him fully now. Wait. The man was now staring at him expectantly. Shit. How long had he been staring? What had he said,

  
“Can I, uh, help you?” The man asked again, ears flicking from perked to flat against his skull and back.

Craig blinked.

‘Cute...’ Was his first thought, followed swiftly by the intense urge to throw himself into the nearby falls. Shit, shit, shit- “I have the items you wanted.”

“Items? What- oh! Oh- gah! Icompletelyforgot! I was supposed to meetyou at the Botanist guild, shit,” The man moved around the corner, disappearing as he rambled on. Craig wondered if he should have followed the Miqo’te farther in, but he swiftly returned, holding a small bag. “I gotdistracted by a customer, and, oh, it doesn’t matter. Sorry for making you comeallthisway.” The last part of his explanation was said all in a rush, eyes squinting towards the floor as he bit his lip, obviously flustered.

“I would go farther.”

“What?”

“It was no bother.” Craig quickly reiterated, putting down the sack of collected plant pieces and moving to collect the offered gil.

“WAIT-” Craig started as two hands were suddenly on his face, angling it as the man peered closer. Oh, wow, his eyes were really pretty up close. “Holy shit, did you catch something? What- shit, what the hell are you doing, notgettingthat taken care of?”

“It’s just some leftover dizziness. It has been a long day of collecting this shit.”

“Just dizziness?!” Craig winced at the shout within their close proximity, and the man huffed, hands on his hips before shaking his head, grabbing his arm and dragging Craig behind the counter. Holy shit his hand was on his arm- “The poison is badenough, but Stroper’s are disgusting and just- howareyou still standing right now? Do you know how many diseases they carry? Ofcourse you don’t! They-ack,” Craig was more or less forced to sit on a rather comfy wooden chair, finding the Mi’qote’s rambling sufficiently distracting to not scowl at being so easily manhandled by the stranger. “They’ve got hundreds of potential diseases that can spread to you and you wouldn’t even know! It’s terrible and honestly why you adventurers don’t supply yourselves better is beyond me. Like the smell should giveyou some warning!” Craig was given a small bottle, the liquid inside a cloudy yellow.

He looked from the bottle to the man, eyebrow raising. “You expect me to drink this? It looks like piss.”

“Ohmygods, it’s not piss! Why would I give you piss?”

“I don’t know. Why would you?”

“I didn’t! Just drink it!” He turned, grumbling to himself as he walked over to a cupboard and opened it, beginning to rummage around for Gods know what. “Anyroad, I suppose it may be a bit my fault, so I won’t charge you for the potion.”

“You were going to charge me?”

“No! But they aren’t exactly cheap, and you don’t seem exactly grateful.”

“Oh my apologies,” Craig huffed, rolling his eyes, “I should be so thankful that I had to trudge all the way up here because you lost track of time.”

“You’re an asshole, you know that?”

Craig flicked him the middle finger, ignoring the warm curl in his stomach at the narrowed eyes glaring down at him. “Fine, whatever, giveitback then, if you don’t want it!”

Craig leaned back in the seat, holding the potion away from the approaching hand. “What? No way, you gave it to me. It’s mine now.”

“What are you, five?”

Craig snorted, hiding the smirk he couldn’t fight behind the rim of the bottle as he shot the liquid down. Despite the coloring, it was not piss. It did, however, taste faintly like cinnamon, and it went down smooth. “What was that?”

The heaviness behind his eyes had all but faded in its entirely; the almost unnatural weight returning to normal exhaustion.

“Something a friend of mine cooked up just in case. She- hold still,” Craig felt his head cupped and angled upwards, staring into a pair of brilliantly bright eyes once more. Greens and golds and blues- “Yeah, your eyes don’t look as cloudy. The potion sort of flushesout the remainder of toxins left by the Stropers.”

He did feel a lot better, though shamefully couldn’t attest it to the potion alone. “Thanks, I guess.”

His head was released, and the man hummed. Craig didn’t really feel like moving, so he made himself comfortable and cocked his head to the side as he watched the other man. “So, like, do I get a name? The big guy at the guild called you jitterbug.”

“Gah, don’t call me that! It’s Tweek!” His ears were flicking nervously again, refusing to look up from his counter as he started opening the bag Craig had given him. “Mynameis Tweek.”

Craig said nothing, having to stop himself from putting his foot farther into his mouth and asking something stupid. He watched in partial interest as Tweek pulled out the vines and bulbs, wondering what he was going to use them for.

“Why are you still here?” Tweek asked, finally glancing back to Craig with suspicion. “Did you needsomething else?”

Shit.

Craig stood slowly, as if he hadn’t been caught loitering. “Uh. Just.” Shit, shit, shit, “curious.”

“Curious? About what?”

“You.”

“What?!”

“What you’re doing,” Craig said, quickly putting his hands up at the nervous look Tweek was now shooting him. “I was curious… about what you were going to do. With that stuff.”

“Oh. O-Oh, uh,” Tweek seemed to relax marginally, motioning for Craig to move to the other side of the counter. He didn’t allow himself to pout at having to put the furniture between them again, but did as instructed. “You were at the guild earlier, right? They’re having some issues with root rot. Elsewhere too; the conjurer’s guild has noticed some rot insidethetree they’re located in. And I’ve, ack, noticed some plants suffering from it past the gates. Not anything major, but,” he shrugged, folding the bag up after having separated the ingredients onto the counter. “I’m trying to figure out how to help as best I can, but I can only do somuch on my own. Collecting these was abig help, so, uh. Thanks.”

Craig wasn’t about to admit that he was desperate to keep this conversation going as long as possible, despite how normally dry and unbearable small talk could be. “How would these help?”

Tweek brightened, shooting him a quick ghost of a smile that felt like a peek of sunrise. “Oh! Well, Stropers, atleast, in myopinion, are the nastiest things in the Black Shroud. But they don’t seem to infect each other or themselves, right?”

Craig nodded, bullshitting as hard as possible so Tweek would think he did in fact know this.

“So, I figured; maybe there’s something in them that stops that. So I’m trying to see if I can use the vines as a sort of mix into the soil to stop the growth of the rot. Like, crush them up to powder or paste. Figured the bulbs would help if mixed in, for the nutrients they contain. It’s, uh-“ he paused, one hand burying itself into his hair and messing with it in self-consciousness. “I don’t really have much to go on yet, but I figured it was worth a shot? At least until we can figure out what’s really happening.” Tweek motioned to the piles. “I know I, gah, asked for a lot of them. So. Really! It’ll be a big help. I’ll probably need them all, since I doubt it’ll be something easyto cook up.”

“Do you want help?”

Craig felt about as surprised as Tweek looked. But his heart was in his throat faster then his mind could catch it, and forged on. “I don’t have anything better to do.”

“You-“ Tweek bit his lip, Craig watching one of the ears flick downwards before both perked up, looking down to catch those large eyes staring at him again. “You wouldn’t mind?”

Craig shook his head.

And if he thought that smile before had been like a sunrise, the one aimed at him now was like staring into the sun. Bright, and brilliant, and big enough that his eyes crinkled in the corners. It seemed to illuminate the room better than the lanterns set up around them.

Fuck.

“That would be. Amazing! Actually! Yes! Uh, yeah, I mean, gah, if you. If you wouldn’t mind. I can, I can pay you for your time! Of course!” Tweek rambled, seemingly unaware of the stunned admiration Craig was paralyzed with. Tweek leaned forward over the counter slightly, holding out his hand. “You’ve got a deal! Uh. Mister...?”

“Craig.” He took the hand, holding it firmly and reveling in how nice it felt in his own, despite the callouses and dirt caked onto it. “Craig.” Did he just say his own name twice? Fuck.

He felt his own lips curl up into a smaller, more hesitant smile than the one Tweek was shooting him despite his embarrassment, and quashed the cry of objection in his heart as Tweek released his hand. “Well, alright then! I’ll, uh, see you tomorrow, then! Just come by whenever you’ve got time and I’ll, gah, put you to work!”

Oh yes please.

Craig nodded quickly, swallowing thickly as he turned to leave.

It wasn’t until he was entering the Carline Canopy that he remembered he was supposed to remind Tweek about Theorzen’s request. Well, whatever. He was seeing Tweek again tomorrow, so he would relay the message then.

He was going to see him again tomorrow. The thought made a smile reappear on his face once more, and Craig didn’t fight it.

Gridania was starting to look a lot more appealing.

**Author's Note:**

> Me, a useless Turnip with too many things on my plate and reaching for more? Absolutely. Hope y’all enjoyed the pointless word vomit lmao. Might actually have a plot for something in the future once I get some of my own works posted up and lighten my workload  
> ╭( ･ㅂ･)و )


End file.
